


Leaving the Nest

by Link-Trashart (FanFiction_Artist_Prototype)



Series: Bird Dad Teba [1]
Category: The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild
Genre: Big Brothers, Bird Dad Teba, Found Family, Gen, How the hell is that not a tag we're changing that immediatly, Link (Legend of Zelda) Has a Potty Mouth, Link (Legend of Zelda) Needs a Hug, Link (Legend of Zelda) Uses Sign Language, Saki despairs over her hylian fledgling and her husband, Selectively Mute Link (Legend of Zelda), Sometimes a family is three Ritos and that strange Hylian they picked up along the way, Teba adopts Zelda as well because she needs a new dad
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-11-26
Updated: 2020-11-26
Packaged: 2021-03-10 05:49:00
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,868
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27728371
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/FanFiction_Artist_Prototype/pseuds/Link-Trashart
Summary: Teba likes to think he's seen a lot, after all before they'd had Tulin and then Vah Medoh grounded the Rito he and Saki had spent most of their lives galivanting around Hyrule dealing swift deaths to monsters and seeing what remained of the world they'd be born into a hundred years too late.And sure, maybe he's a bit floored at the fact the tiny Hylian he'd thought was just a suicidal half Sheikah (because Medoh was a Sheikah device and everyone knew that they were very particular about nobody but their own touching what they had left of their technology) turned out to be the Hylian Champion from a hundred years ago but he's fine! Completely and utterly fine!
Relationships: Daruk & Link & Mipha & Revali & Urbosa & Zelda (Legend of Zelda), Link & Saki (Legend of Zelda), Link & Teba (Legend of Zelda), Link & Tulin (Legend of Zelda), Zelda & Teba (Legend of Zelda)
Series: Bird Dad Teba [1]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/2063796
Comments: 7
Kudos: 227





	Leaving the Nest

Teba was decidedly _not_ fine.

He'd thought he'd experienced the full lengths of his over protective instincts when he'd started taking Tulin out to the flight range and had started letting his son accompany him on flights and hunts but nothing could have prepared him for the sight of his other fledgling turning up at Rito village with the long lost _Princess Zelda._

That was _not_ something you just dumped on a nest without at least a letter. But no, the fledgling just turned up at the bridge coming from the tundra's direction of all places in that incredibly inappropriate tunic of his; for Hylia's sake how many times had Saki told the kid that if he was going to spontaneously turn up to the nest then he had better be in his Snowquill's, with the _Princess_ walking besides him like it was nothing more than just another one of his visits.

At the very least Tulin enjoyed seeing the older fledgling turn up unannounced. Which was actually how Teba had found out, his youngest chick flapping into the flight range feathers all ruffled squawking about how 'Link is back! Link is back and he's got a _girl_ with him!' What Teba had arrived back home to was a very different situation than the one Tulin's description had lead him to believe he would be coming home to.

He'd nearly flown through the roosts doorway when he'd spotted the village crowding around his older fledgling, Link was bandaged nearly head to toe, the ones wrapped around his forehead having a damp spot of red that made him cluck his tongue upon spotting it and his left side (the one with those awful scars on that when hearing a rather abridged reason of 'oh year a couple years ago one of the guardians fried me' had lead to Teba convincing Hearth to go Guardian hunting with him; they'd had a safe airspace until the next blood moon after that particular conversation) looked particularly stiff and if Teba's sight wasn't wrong - and it never was- then his dominant wrist was in a crude splint. The village parted for him when they realised he was approaching and it gave him a better view of the chick who, upon spotting him, sheepishly smiled and raised his injured wrist before immediately trying to hide it when he realised what he'd done.

"Link." The fledgling clicked his tongue, his way of acknowledgement when he was on a non-verbal day, and shuffled a bit tensing when he strained one of his injuries. Teba moved closer, crouching next to his kid, eyes sweeping him for any untended to injuries.

"Alright, alright that's enough," Saki stood from where she'd been bandaging Zelda the honest to goddess Princess of Hyrule, as in the woman on the ancient paintings the Sheikah got out for pilgrims if you managed to find their village, like the mosaics in all the old Hylian temple ruins, "You've had your fun gawking, time for family only, so off you all go- shoo."

Hearth stuck around with little Molli but upon a raised brow from Saki his friend too spirited him and his daughter off to their own roost.

With that the door curtain was drawn as well as the ones facing other roosts meaning light was only coming in from the back of the roost, it caused a deep shadow to cross the two injured Hylian's and made them look so much older than they were, though he supposed in Zelda's case it wasn't really a surprise; she _was_ over a hundred years old.

"Tulin, do you think you could do me a favour?" he turned his head towards his younger child who'd been watching the two Hylian's from his hammock when he received a nod he continued, "Can you go tell the elder your brother and the Princess are fine? I'm sure he'll be worried."

It wasn't much, more of a means of getting the tiny chick out of the nest so he could ask some rather important questions without overloading the poor little ones brain, but it sounded important enough that his youngest didn't question it. 

"On it!"

When the curtain was back in place he turned to his older fledgling and tried to convey as much as he could through his eyes how relieved he was that he'd come back okay, "Come here fledgling-"

He didn't even finish his words before he had a heavy body launching itself at him, choked half noises leaving his kids throat - aborted words that he couldn't bring himself to speak clouding the air and Teba just sighed, rearranging his limbs so that he didn't snap his legs and held the boy closer to him. Shaking hands fisted into the feathers on his back in the gaps between his armour and normally he'd bop the kid on the head, remind him to be careful with his Hylian hands but right now he needed to focus on making sure his ked felt safe.

Link's head found it's way under his chin and some more cut off sounds cut through the quiet of the roost. Teba just pulled his son closer to him and tapped the top of the boys head with the underside of his beak, "You're gonna be fine Link, you'll be fine fledgling."

-*-

"If I'm understanding this correctly," And in a rather selfish way Teba hoped he wasn't, "Link died a hundred and one years ago at the age of _sixteen_ protecting you during the _Calamity_ and was put into a stasis, only to come out of it with no memories and nothing more than the ghost of your father to guide him."

The Princess nodded and Teba had to remind himself that it was not the Princess' fault his fledgling had died all that time ago- back then Link wasn't even his kid did he even have a right to get angry about it?

Yes, _yes he did_. Because it wasn't fair- the Princess was one hundred and eighteen and Link was a hundred and seventeen, there was no conceivable way that anything that had happened to them could be seen as fair or justified and while he'd never been particularly religious Teba sent a prayer to the Goddess Hylia in that moment for mercy towards the two children in front of him because while technically they were older than him they were still physically and mentally children.

He had to ask himself, what had Hyrule been like a century ago to have to rely on the help of _children?_ All the elders he'd met throughout his life spoke of a golden age of Hyrule - of an age of prosperity that was so much more than this monarch-less Kingdom could ever hope to reach but had it truly been like that? Because Teba didn't think a world that relied on children and nobody questioned it was a world he'd enjoy living in. The mere thought of Tulin ever having to become a warrior not because he wanted to but because the world required him to keep working. It was a sickening thought; as someone who had become a warrior because he _could_ (and because he didn't truly think there was anything else for him in the world before Tulin was born) the thought of anyone being told they had no choice in putting their life on the line felt wrong.

"Does that change anything for you?"

The question - _the implications in the question_ \- have him snapping his gaze back up to the Princess' green eyes with a fury he hasn't felt since watching Hearth be shot out of the air by Vah Medoh when the divine beast was still under the control of the Calamity. What in Hylia's good graces did the Princess think she was insinuating by asking something like that? Of course he wouldn't just decide to stop caring about his fledgling because of a hundred year stasis he didn't ask for-

"I can tell by your expression that the answer is no... Link never had many people before so I apologise for asking... but I needed to be sure." And the worry in her voice, the hesitation juxtaposing the fierce determination in her eyes made her look all the more the teenager she was, "Link has given his everything for Hyrule I couldn't- I couldn't let him give his heart and lose it again. Not after last time."

A glance was cast upward to where Vah Medoh was perched told him all he had to know about what she really meant by that.

"You all were close then?"

A choked noise rose up from the Princess but she kept her head tilted back to stare at Vah Medoh's underbelly like it would give her all the answers, "Urbosa was like a mother to us... after my mother died she was all I had; then Link became my knight and we had to gather up the champions... did you know Princess Mipha was Link's childhood friend?" The girl in front of him gave a broken giggle, "The stories she would tell- he tried to dive off of Shatterback point once! He was three... The Princess and I we were like sisters. Daruk was- Daruk was Daruk." The words weren't harsh they were said with conviction; a meaning lost on him but still prominent enough in her words for him to at least acknowledge.

"Revali was always squawking about being better than Link, but the two of them... in the end you couldn't see one without the other. Whether it was trying to throw each other into the castle moat or eating themselves sick... Revali was one of my closest friends as well; the bow of light was always easier to wield with him at my side teaching me."

"It sounds like you've lost more than you could give as well Princess."

"Just Zelda is fine... There's no monarchy in Hyrule now. I'm just a Hylian now-"

Teba pulled himself up, talons clacking against Revali's landing as he moved closer to the Princess, and when he made it to her side he could see the tears threatening to stream down her face and so he crouched next to her, hoping that she was as welcoming to comfort as Link was when he was upset, "People are still waiting for your queenship Princess, every year there's little Hylian girls born Zelda's who wait for the day they can meet the one they're named after. Hyrule still remembers you Princess."

The girl laughed, and Teba reached a palm out to rest on her shoulder, she crumbled under the weight and Teba pulled the crying child closer to him to hide her away from any watching eyes. "It seems remembering is all anyone can do nowadays."

_"FUCK!"_

Head snapping up immediately at hearing the curse leaving Tulin's mouth he heard his older fledgling urgently start to shush the younger old for Tulin to start swearing more and more, then Molli joined in, _"Shit!"_

"Princess excuse me," standing up he turned his head towards where he heard the voices and Hearth's shout near synched with his own, "LINK! What did I say about swearing about the kids!"


End file.
